Lara NeriMay 30, 20193 minAscending Hero MountainWhen I taught English in China, we were in a filthy, rat-infested village, crawling with giant cockroaches and shrouded in a pervasive...
Lara NeriApr 19, 20196 minBy death He trampled deathI love Easter so much that it is hard to write about it. I cry thinking about it. It is the most full of true joy, the most expressive of...
Lara NeriApr 11, 20195 minFlowery Sunday in ConstantinopleFlowery (Palm) Sunday began to be celebrated in Constantinople by the fifth century - a couple centuries after it began in Jerusalem and...
Lara NeriFeb 28, 20193 minWill "Beauty save the world"?I have often heard or seen Dostoevsky quoted, “Beauty will save the world.” It is attributed to him as if it were his personal...
Lara NeriFeb 21, 20194 minApproaching Great Lent: all are responsible for allSeveral years ago, after very emotional struggles with infertility and two heartbreaking miscarriages, we began our first adoption. It...
Lara NeriFeb 14, 20193 minSt. Valentine: active love is labor and fortitudeIn our family, we have four very intense children, two adopted with trauma histories, one with secondary trauma, one with a missing...
Lara NeriFeb 7, 20193 minSt. Scholastica & the loving fatherhood of GodI have a hard time relating to the saints who knew they were going to be nuns from the time they were six - those saints who wanted to do...
Lara NeriFeb 1, 20192 minSuffering & SofteningThe feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple (2 February) is one of the Twelve Major Feast Days in the Eastern Church, also...
Lara NeriJul 26, 20162 minart camps: pursuing Beauty togetherTwo intensive weeks of art camps have come to an end, and I am thankful for the experience. I kept enrollment to four students per camp...
Lara NeriJul 6, 20162 miniconography: window to the DivineI have just returned from a beautiful, powerful, intense experience where art and prayer were indistinguishable. I have come away with a...
Lara NeriJun 22, 20161 minrebirth & regeneration: the image of the snakeToday in our third Tuesday of elementary art camp, we read Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters, an African fairytale about a prince who...
Lara NeriMay 6, 20162 minthe feast of the AscensionI love this quiet, mid-week feast day celebrating Christ's rising up to Heaven in His resurrected body. He leaves us with the commission...
Lara NeriMay 5, 20161 minthe feast of St. GeorgeSt. George is a popular saint, renowned for slaying a dragon and saving a princess. He is venerated as a vanquisher of evil and knight of...
Lara NeriMay 2, 20163 mindoing shots for the saintsThe first time I met Babushka, my friend Ira’s 76 year old grandmother, she appeared as a tiny speck in a row boat across the water. As...
Lara NeriApr 26, 20162 mincreating a sacred space in the homeWhen I was living in St. Petersburg, I rented a small, airy room in a sunny, high-ceilinged apartment on the corner of Dostoevsky Street...
Lara NeriApr 3, 20161 minChrist is risen! Indeed He is risen!Pascha is my favorite time of the year! I love the joy of this season, the hope of rebirth and resurrection! We celebrate this day with...
Lara NeriFeb 12, 20162 minWhy come to an Akathist Art Girls' Night Out workshop?In these times, in our country, many women live isolated lives. Mothers feel societal pressure to do everything themselves - the cooking,...